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Thursday, October 27, 2016

Babies, Pap Smears, and Early Hours: Starting off OB/GYN Strong!

Adding another hospital badge to the collection!

This week is seriously flying by! I started my OB/GYN
rotation on Monday, and so far it’s been a super fun experience. I wasn’t sure
if I would find it awkward or amusing that my preceptor is my actual
gynecologist, but my first day started off smoothly with no awkward moments at
all. I am actually pretty happy to have my gynecologist as a preceptor because
I originally sought him out due to the fact that he is a DO, is
African-American (we don’t have enough black men in medicine), and he had great
reviews. Before Monday, I had never been in his office, so it was awe-inspiring
to see all the degrees on the wall, awards from the National Medical
Association, and even a gorgeous painting of black physicians and patients
which is included below. I even found out that he used to be a member of the
SNMA, so that made me extra happy :-)

Love this picture!!!!

My first day was spent seeing patients for mostly annual
exams and OB follow-ups. I was able to use the mini Doppler ultrasound on some
of the patients to make sure their babies heart beats were strong, and it was
fun seeing some of them get excited over it. I even got to take the initial
history of some of the new patients, and since it had been a while since I
performed one on a standardized patient, the doctor went over how to properly
perform speculum exams and pap smears.

Ready to find that heartbeat!

On Tuesday, I headed over to a clinic that mostly caters to
immigrant populations and I really enjoyed my day there. I had one embarrassing
moment when I walked into a patient’s room and immediately started speaking
Spanish, only to find out that her main language was Russian and a small amount
of English, but I quickly caught on when she looked at me like I was crazy LOL.
In my defense, over 90% of the patients that morning only spoke Spanish, but
from now on, I will definitely ask the language when I first step into the
room. On the plus side, the doc treated us all to a tasty lunch from a Colombian
restaurant and it was one of the employee’s birthday, so there were delicious
cupcakes that day too. At around 2pm we saw the last patient, and the doc told
me we were waiting on a patient to deliver at the hospital but it would be a
while, so I went home to relax. I figured he had forgot about me when I went to
bed around 11pm, but I was woken up bright and early with a text that said to
meet him at the hospital. Luckily, the hospital I am rotating at this month is
only 10 minutes away from me, and my sister is here taking on the nanny role, so
I quickly cleaned up, got dressed, and made my way to the Labor & Delivery
section. The patient ended up not being ready until after 7am, but the delivery
occurred really fast. I was all gowned up and ready to go, and the doc
instructed me where to put my hands and I DELIVERED MY FIRST BABY!!!!! It was
such a cool moment, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it, because he was then
instructing me on where to clamp, where to tell the father to cut, and how to
properly remove a placenta. There were also two more deliveries we were waiting
on, so we left to go check on those mothers right after.

The "I just delivered my first baby" Selfie :-)

All-in-All, I ended up delivering 2/3 babies (the last one
too big for a beginner) and 3/3 placentas, so it was a great day! The only con
is that there was a lot of waiting around for the patients to fully dilate and
be ready to give birth, but I had the pleasure of being able to chill out in
the physician’s lounge which was really nice. I caught up on a little Netflix
and even finished up some work I had been putting off, so I was able to
actually relax and get some rest when I finally did make it home.

I voted! Have you?

I can’t wait to see what the rest of my month in OB/GYN
brings, and I am looking forward to getting the chance to perfect my suturing
skills in the OR. Today I had the pleasure of having the day off, so I took
advantage of the early voting that is currently taking place and went out and
exercised my right to vote. It took less than 30 min and only required an ID,
so I strongly encourage all of you to go out, vote, and let your voice be
heard. Welp, tomorrow will probably be another super early day, so until next time!